Old Town is the historic sector of the downtown Scottsdale area that strives to preserve the city’s rich western heritage. Rustic traditions are alive and kicking in Old Town where you’ll find wooden sidewalks and hitching posts in front of upscale boutique shops.
We live and work in Old Town and are in love with the lifestyle. While the area certainly holds a strong attraction for tourists, it is also a great community to reside in. The major benefit for us is that everything we want to do is within walking or biking distance. We can literally skateboard to work and often do. Biking to the local farmer’s market on our beach cruisers is a favorite weekend ritual.
We find that many of our younger buyers looking to purchase a condo in downtown Scottsdale or Old Town are looking for the same amenities and conveniences that we are. Generation Y or millennial buyers are, for the most part, urban-dwelling walkers and cyclists who crave an active lifestyle with easy access to shops, cafes and restaurants. They don’t want to spend the weekend cutting grass when they could be snowboarding in the mountains. Perhaps most importantly, the millennial market is adverse to anything resembling a long commute Our buyers don’t want to drive into the city; they want to be part of the city.
The condo market in and around Old Town offers residents all of these conveniences and more plus the peace of mind that comes with living in one of the safest cities in America. There is a very strong sense of community in Old Town that thrives due, in part, to the fact that people don’t commute to suburban homes at night and dim the business lights. They are out and about in the restaurants, cafes and bars located in the same neighborhood they live in. The lifestyle serves to strengthen community bonds.
There is a man named Dan Semenchuk who is an ad salesman for the Scottsdale Downtown Map & Directory. Everyone knows him as “Downtown Dan” and he is a well-known local advocate and expert on Old Town. He conducts walking tours of the neighborhood, offers consulting services for prospective business operators and has done more than anyone else to raise awareness of Old Town’s many attributes as an all-around great place to live.